Reply #39: Shanikka's rant

[Febble]

"Y'all just don't get it" on Daily Kos, last December, is still worth reading, for those who didn't read it then:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/12/15/9734/4841

Here's a snip:

I've been a lifelong Democrat. My mother was in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. However, my mama also didn't raise no fools. I'm African-American first and no matter how much other folks tell me that they care about my people's rights, the proof is in the pudding. The rabid insulting those who wish to continue to fight for our rights; the willingness to obfuscate or ignore this issue or allow it to sink from public view; the readiness with which folks would rather call others crazy (i.e. tin hat brigade) than admit that African-American voters in Ohio deserve the party they have been steadfastly loyal to for 40 years to fight for them NO MATTER WHAT; the convenient knee-jerk promise for "reform" for "next time" while allowing what happened in Ohio THIS TIME to pass without a fight REGARDLESS OF WHETHER KERRY WON OR LOST (I honestly don't give a damn) should tell any rational person what the truth really is. It definitely should tell any Black person deluded enough to believe that the Democratic party and its majority membership really gives a damn about us what the truth really is.

The real shame about this entire situation is that the truth about the Democratic Party and what it is really prepared to do for Black folk (precious little) has hurt and disappointed and will continue to hurt and disappoint so many African-Americans who genuinely wanted to believe they had a real ally in their unique American struggle in the Democratic Party. But, if I am honest, I admit that it is largely our own fault. After all, in hindsight we were told 40 years ago by one of our own that Democrats and Republicans were precisely the same animal, when it came to a willingness to fight for African-Americans' interests. The one thing that has become clear post-2004 is the truth of that statement. And that truth will, I predict, cost the Democratic party the most loyal base it has had since the late 1960's.

It's long, it's angry, and it's brilliant.